Cream butter, sugar and egg yolks. Combine well until fluffy. Sift (optional) the dry ingredients and add the milk in slowly. Mix well. Add in the cranberry jelly and rhubarb. Fold in the
whipped egg whites. Pour into a well greased and floured loaf pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for an hour.

Mix melted butter with the icing sugar until the consistency feels right; add a few good drops of orange juice and mix well. Spread on cooled cake.

No strawberries or cherries here...Just rhubarb.
Rhubarb Topped Cheesecake, a little creamier than the rest.

In a large saucepan, combine the rhubarb, sugar and two tablespoons water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer until rhubarb is tender, about 10 minutes.

Combine cornstarch and remaining water until smooth; gradually stir into rhubarb mixture. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for two minutes or until thickened. Add food coloring if desired.

Cover and refrigerate until cool. Spoon over slices of cheesecake.

Courtesy of "food and Recipes"

Drinking Vinegar?
An "over the winter" project I might try.

You may have seen recipes for drinks with infused water with rhubarb. How about vinegar?

Over time, the flavors and colors let go from the vegetables or fruit (either can be used) into the liquid, and it works with vinegar. Shaking your head over "vinegar?" I did too, but apparently it's wonderful; I haven't tried this, but I will point you to the article and WONDERFUL pics and you can judge for yourself.

Cider vinegar, rice vinegar or distilled white vinegar can be used and tops up a few cups of chopped rhubarb into a mason jar. It is covered and popped into the fridge to sit for 5 months until ready to filter. After filtering, it is poured into a saucepan and simmered with a sweetener.This tart but sweet syrup is then transferred again to a "nice" bottle and kept.

Take a look at this, complete with great photos of the whole process start to finish. Something you might want to try with any number of fruits. The link will be given out at the end of this newsletter.

Strawberry AND Rhubarb Syrup, another syrup with a twist
(very tasty over waffles!)

2 cups thinly diced frozen rhubarb

2 cups strawberries cut into quarters

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup corn syrup

1 cup water

1 vanilla bean (or tsp. extract)

Bring all ingredients except for 1 cup of strawberries to a simmer on low heat for 10 minutes.

Remove, and allow to cool.

Stir in the other cup of strawberries and let it cool further.

You can make this a week ahead as long as it is kept refrigerated.

Food for thought? Rhubarb grows very well in raised garden beds for a number of reasons.

The yield is higher, disease and weeds are alot less, fertilizer will perform much more efficiently and drainage is better as well. Thinking about starting rhubarb next season? You may want to start with this method.

Combining two of my favorite things - rhubarb and chocolate

Rhubarb Chocolate Chip Cake

1 1/2 cups chopped rhubarb

½ cup Butter or Margarine, softened

3 Eggs

1 cup sugar

½ cup chocolate chips

1 cup all purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. Vanilla

Method:

Cream together butter, sugar, vanilla and eggs until light and creamy. Add sifted flour and baking powder and mix well. Add rhubarb chunks and chocolate chips and blend into mixture. Pour into greased baking pan and bake at 350° F for one hour until golden brown.

By the way, if you should happen to be in Iceland in the near future, you are actually invited to stop and have breakfast with the President. A tourist video has been released (remember the ash?) in order to lure tourists back and reintroduce Iceland as a great place to see.

So, do stop in for breakfast. Guess what he's having? Pancakes with whipped cream and rhubarb jam.